The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Buwumia, has appealed to the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to consider the Ghana Card as the basis of data and the information it needs to widen the country’s tax net.
He said since the merger of the Tax Identification Number (TIN) into the Ghana Card system, the government had been able to increase the number of people with TIN from the four percent it inherited in 2017 to the current 85 percent.
“So I am admonishing GRA. I am saying that the data is available now that we have put this together,” the Vice-President said.
“It is a very lazy approach to go and keep looking for taxes from people who are already paying their taxes when you can look at the vast majority who are not paying their taxes,” he lamented, stressing that once the tax net was widened and a lot more revenue generated, there would be no need to increase taxes.
KNUST’s 57th Congregation
Dr Bawumia made the appeal in a keynote address at the 57th Congregation of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi last Friday.
The event was graced by the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who doubles as the Chancellor of the KNUST; the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, and the Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, Professor Rita Akosua Dickson.
Others in attendance at the fully-packed Great Hall of the KNUST were politicians, academics and traditional leaders.
Source: graphic online
